ROVERS suffered a damaging set-back in their survival bid when they crashed 3-1 at Leeds in the Premiership yesterday.
The visitors' hopes of a third successive Premiership victory all but died a death in the opening eight minutes as Robbie Fowler fired the home side into a 2-0 lead.
Matt Jansen briefly offered Rovers a glimmer of hope when he pulled one back early in the second half.
But Aussie international Harry Kewell then completed a miserable afternoon for the visitors when he added United's third in the 71st minute.
"Conceding two goals in the first 10 minutes like that was a bit like committing suicide," added Duff.
"Both were sloppy goals and that's been the story of our season.
"And that then made it very hard to get back into it.
"So now we've got Leicester and Southampton as our next two games and we need to make sure we get maximum points out of them."
Those thoughts were also echoed by Jansen, who was bitterly disappointed by the outcome of yesterday's game despite grabbing his 14th goal of the season.
"We had a 10 minute spell where we defended poorly and gifted them two goals which was very disappointing because, against a side like Leeds, that then makes it very difficult to get back into the game," said Jansen.
"We did then get it back to 2-1 and we suddenly thought we might be able to nick something until we then gave away another soft goal when we were in full possession deep in their half.
"So the manager was both frustrated and angry afterwards, as were the players.
"We went there off three or four good results and we thought we could get something because we'd been playing well enough to turn Leeds over.
"But they're a quality side and it was always going to be tough even before our disastrous start.
"We've got a little break now before we play against Leicester so at least that's a chance for us to recharge the batteries."
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